Underbrush and palmetto removal in Brevard

What underbrush work covers

The target is everything between the ground and the canopy: saw palmetto, wax myrtle, grapevine and greenbrier, saplings, dead limbs and old fallen trunks. The oaks and pines overhead stay. Done well, a lot that looked like a green wall from the street turns into shaded open ground you can see through.

Crews often use a forestry mulcher for the bulk of it and switch to saws and hand tools close to trunks that are staying. On a small lot, a skid steer with a brush cutter may do the job. Ask which method the crew plans for your ground and why.

Permits for underbrush

Palm Bay calls this grubbing. Its grubbing permit covers removing underbrush by hand clearing, roto-chopping or mulching in place. Single- and two-family sites under 1 acre are exempt from that permit, and so are areas of a quarter acre or less. It never covers removing protected or specimen trees or mangroves, or scraping and filling land (Palm Bay Code s. 175.015).

In unincorporated Brevard, land clearing means removing or cutting down vegetation, root-raking included, but not allowable mowing, trimming or pruning (s. 62-4332), and it needs a permit unless the property is exempt (s. 62-4337).

For lighter jobs the county has a small scale land clearing permit. Technically an administrative waiver, it lets you take out as much as half the understory or 1 acre, whichever is smaller, plus up to 10% of the native canopy. The permit is good for 30 days from issue, a property can get just one per calendar year, specimen trees are off the table, and the county does a site visit first (s. 62-4338).

Keep the machine off the roots

Brevard's code counts damage to a kept tree as land clearing. Its list includes soil compaction and trunk or root injury from machinery, fuel or herbicide spilled over the roots, materials stored under the tree, and grade changes over the root system (s. 62-4338). It makes a good checklist even if your lot is inside a city.

Agree on which trees stay before work starts. Ask the operator to pull brush away from those trunks instead of driving into the root zone, and not to leave chips piled against the bark.

Look before the brush comes down

Gopher tortoises dig in dry, sandy ground, and palmetto lots often sit on exactly that. FWC requires a permit to clear within 25 feet of a potentially occupied burrow and none if the work keeps that distance (FWC). Walk the lot, flag the burrows, and point them out before anyone quotes.

In Melbourne, trimming, removing or altering vegetation in designated occupied scrub-jay or gopher tortoise habitat requires approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Melbourne LDC s. 9.272). Scrubby oak on white sand anywhere in the county deserves a second look; the scrub-jay guide explains why.

Check the pines for nests, too. Florida raptors, their nests and eggs are protected, and removing an active hawk nest takes a federal permit (FWC raptor permits).

Questions for the crew

Underbrush quotes look alike on paper. The answers to these make the difference.

• Which trees are staying, and how will the roots be protected?
• Mulched in place, or cut and hauled?
• How close to the ground will the brush be cut?
• What regrowth should you expect, and is a follow-up pass priced?
• What happens if a burrow or a nest turns up mid-job?